interval since the union of the spirit to the body first set the machine at work, if the stop proceed only from some external force, some restraint upon the motion of any principal part, without derangement, damage, or decay of the organization itself, the presence of the soul in the body will be a sufficient cause to restore the motion, if the impediment only can be removed.

Thus, by the united lights of revelation and philosophy, connecting what is clear and indisputable in each, separated from all conjecture and precarious inference, we have deduced a proof of those important truths to which the founders of this Society have been indeed the first to turn the attention of mankind, — namely, that the vital principle may remain in a man for some time after all signs of the vegetable life disappear in his body; that what have hitherto passed, even among physicians, for certain signs of a complete death the rigid limb, the clay-cold skin, the silent pulse, the breathless lip, the livid cheek, the fallen jaw, the pinched nostril, the fixed staring eye-are uncertain and equi

vocal, insomuch that a human body, under all these appearances of death, is in many instances capable of resuscitation.

The truth of these principles, however contrary to received opinions and current prejudices, is now abundantly confirmed. by the success with which Providence hath blessed the attempts of this Society for the space of fourteen years. It is universally confirmed by the equal success vouchsafed to the attempts of similar societies, formed after the example of this, in other parts of Great Britain, and in foreign countries. The benevolence of the institution speaks. for itself. The founders of it are men whom it were injurious to suspect of being actuated in its first formation by the vain desire of attracting public notice by a singular undertaking. The plan of the Society is so adverse to any private interested views, that it acquits them of all sordid motives; for the medical practitioners accept no, pecuniary recompence for the time which they devote to a difficult and tedious process -for the anxiety they feel while the event is doubtful for

the mortification which they too often undergo, when death in spite of all their efforts at last carries off his prey-nor for the insults to which they willingly expose themselves from vulgar incredulity. Their sole reward is in the holy joy of doing good. Of an institution thus free in its origin from the suspicion of ambitious views, and in its plan renouncing selfinterest in every shape, philanthropy must be the only basis. The good intention therefore of the Society is proved by its constitution; the wisdom and public utility of the undertaking are proved by its success. The good intention, the wisdom, and the public utility of the institution, give it no small claim upon the public for a liberal support. I must particularly mention, that the benefit of this Society is by no means confined to the two cases of drowning and suspension: Its timely succours have roused the lethargy of opium, taken in immoderate and repeated doses; they have rescued the wretched victims of intoxication-rekindled the life extinguished by the sudden stroke of lightning-recovered the apoplectic restored life to the infant that had lost it in

the birth and they have proved efficacious in cases of accidental smothering, and of suffocation by noxious damps, in instances in which the tenderness of the infant body, or the debility of old age, greatly lessened the previous probability of success; insomuch that no species of death seems to be placed beyond the reach of this Society's assistance, where the mischief hath gone no farther than an obstruction of the movements of the animal machine, without any damage of the organs themselves. Whether an institution of which it is the direct object to guard human life (as far as is permitted) against the many casualties that threaten it to undo the deadly work of poisons-to lessen the depredations of natural disease, whether an institution so beneficial to individuals, so serviceable to the public, by its success in preserving the lives of citizens, deserve not a legal establishment and patronage, to give it the means and the authority to prosecute its generous views with the more advantage it is for statesmen to consider, who know the public value of the life of every citizen in a free state. It is for us,

till this public patronage be obtained, to supply the want of it, what we can, by the utmost liberality of voluntary contribution.

Nor let any be deterred from taking a part in the views of this excellent institution, by a superstitious notion, that the attempt to restore life is an impious invasion of His province in whose hands are the issues of life and death. The union of soul and body once dissolved, the power which first effected can alone restore; but clockwork accidentally stopped may often be set a-going again, without the hand of the original artificer, even by a rude jog from the clumsy fist of a clown, who may know next to nothing of the nicer parts of the machine. If the union of soul and body remain, as we have seen reason to believe, for some time after the vegetable life hath ceased, whilst it remains, the man whom we hastily pronounce dead is not indeed a dead man, but a living man diseased: "He is not dead, but sleepeth;" and the attempt to awaken him from this morbid sleep is nothing more criminal or offensive to God than it is criminal or